Effective though Catnip (Nepeta cataria) might be – in causing cats to sniff, roll over, and undulate the skin on their back (amongst other things) – it only affects about 50% of cats. And usually has little or no impact on Tigers. A new study in BMC Veterinary Research, March 2017, compares Catnip with Silver […]
Tag: smells
Profiling the Nasal Ranger ® (for field sniffers)
Imagine that you are employed as a professional field sniffer. That is, a person who has the job of attempting to identify and quantify odours, quite literally in the field. Think: agricultural, industrial and natural. But there is an inherent problem – however keen your olfactory expertise, when you’re immersed in problematic stinky air, where […]
To sleep, perchance to smell, perchance to create, maybe
One might, maybe inaccurately, sum up this new study by saying, “Put this in your pipe and sleep on it”. The study is: “Good morning creativity: task reactivation during sleep enhances beneficial effect of sleep on creative performance,” Simone Ritter, Madelijn Strick, Maarten Bos, Rick Van Baaren, Ap Dijksterhuis [pictured here], Journal of Sleep Research, epub […]
Fishy smells (psychological effects of)
If you were playing a ‘trust game’, would a generally pervasive fishy smell lead you to trust your opponents less? It might well do, according to recent research from the University of Michigan. Spike (Wing Sing) Lee and professor Norbert Schwarz explain how “Forty-five students (mean age = 20.1 years, 22 female) at the University […]
Old Books Up Your Nose
Many people notice the smell of old books. Some people study it, and even write monographs: “Material Degradomics: On the Smell of Old Books,” Matija Strlic, Jacob Thomas, Tanja Trafela, Linda Csfalvayov, Irena Kralj Cigi, Jana Kolar, and May Cassar, Analytical Chemistry, vol. 81, no. 20, October 15, 2009, pp 8617–22, DOI 10.1021/ac9016049. [AIR 16:2] […]